handmade socks & homemade bread

It's been a quietly busy day, of baking bread, sewing, a little knitting and browsing the web.

As promised, here are some photos of the socks I'm knitting up.

I'm really excited that they're actually turning out well... I had a not so good experience a few years ago with making socks, as I didn't realize that yarn weight and gauge really mattered, so I purchased a bulky weight yarn instead of worsted. Go figure. Looking back, I just have to shake my head and smile at my naiveté. Needless to say, they were huge. :)

For these socks, I started out using the "Peace Fleece" sock pattern, from the book "Knitting for Peace" that  was gifted to me awhile back by my sweet aunt.They were going smoothly until I came to the heel turn where the number of stitches that I had and the number of stitches they wanted me to have were totally different. I don't know how many times I took out that heel and re-did it, but it was enough to try the patience of Job! Ha ha. Really, though, it got to be pretty annoying. :) After realizing that it was a hopeless cause (or rather, that something was either wrong with me or the pattern), I switched to this pattern here, and was able to finish the first sock without any trouble.

There's something satisfying in being able to make your own socks. True, it's easier to go to a store and grab a factory-made pair, but, I guess the best way to put it is that it gives me a sense of independence knowing that I don't have to rely on an outside source to provide me with necessities of life. I believe it's what you call "self-sufficiency" :)

On another note, I baked the bread this morning that I had mentioned yesterday. I really, really wanted it to taste great, but I'm reluctant to admit that I wasn't over-the-moon happy with the flavor. It looks amazing, and was super easy to make, but like I said, it was lacking. To give the recipe credit though, I did alter it, so that was probably why it didn't turn out like it should have. The flour they said to use is bread flour, which is of course white flour, and our family is really making an effort to only use freshly ground whole wheat flour. So that was one alteration I made, and the other was that I used active dry yeast instead of instant. I read that you could substitute the active for the instant by just adding a little bit more, but I don't know if they taste different or something like that. Anyways, I'll have to do some more looking for a similar recipe using whole wheat instead of white. Wish me luck! :)